Ski Trip
by foobar137
Summary: Sequel to Miles Apart. A misunderstanding has kept Ferb from speaking to Phineas for six months, and caused issues in his relationship with Gretchen. Now an upcoming ski trip is bringing issues to a head. Rated M for non-explicit sexual activity between teenagers.


**This is a sequel to Miles Apart, although it's not especially important for this story. The relevant story so far: Isabella grew up on the other side of Danville. Adyson became leader of troop 46231, with Isabella leading a rival troop and a lot of bad blood between them. In high school, Isabella finally met Phineas. Shortly thereafter, Adyson broke up with him, and over the course of the following summer, Phineas and Isabella fell for each other.**

**It's now a year and a half later. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and Gretchen are all about sixteen.**

**Rated M for non-explicit sexual activity between sixteen-year-olds.**

* * *

Jim Schneider set his book down as he reached over to pick up the ringing phone. "Schneider," he said into it.

"Hi, Jim. Lawrence Fletcher here," the voice on the phone said.

Jim smiled. His daughter Gretchen was dating Lawrence's son Ferb. They'd been dating for almost two and a half years now, and seemed deeply in love with each other. They were juniors in high school, and starting to plan out how they could be with each other in college.

"What's up, Lawrence?" he asked.

Lawrence almost sounded embarrassed. "So the ski trip that we've got planned..."

Jim nodded. Lawrence and his wife had planned a family trip up to the mountains while their children had winter break, and had invited Gretchen and their other son's girlfriend along. "You aren't cancelling, are you? I was looking forward to a week alone."

"No, I'm trying to figure out sleeping arrangements, and ran into an issue I wanted to bring up with you before I asked Ferb and Gretchen."

"Oh?"

Lawrence sounded hesitant over the phone. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but toward the end of last summer, we became aware that Phineas and Isabella are sexually active now."

"I was not aware of that, no. You're okay with that?"

"I'm not sure if 'okay' is the right word. Resigned to it, perhaps."

"Would they stop if you told them to?"

"Would you have stopped when you were sixteen?"

Jim laughed. "Probably not, no. So why are you bringing this up?"

"I suspect that if we put Phineas and Ferb in one room, and Gretchen and Isabella in another, all that's going to happen is that somebody's going to swap while we aren't looking."

Jim sighed. "I suspect you're right. What are you thinking?"

"I was thinking of just surrendering to the inevitable, to be quite honest. Give Phineas and Isabella a room, and...if it's acceptable to you...give Ferb and Gretchen a room. I understand if you don't want to be seen to condone this, so I felt I'd ask you before I asked them if they'd prefer it that way. I don't want to put you in the role of the bad guy."

"Do you know if Ferb and Gretchen are..." Jim trailed off.

"I do not. I suspect they aren't, but they've had plenty of opportunity if they wanted to."

"You're asking a lot from me, Lawrence. Gretchen's all I have left, you know that."

"I am aware. I've been there. I didn't lose Ferb's mother in childbirth like you lost Samantha, but she didn't see his first birthday. He's all I have left of her. But...they have to grow up at some point."

"I know. Need to let them go eventually."

"I can say I can't think of anyone I'd like to see Ferb with than Gretchen. They seem good for each other."

Jim rested his head on the back of the chair, taking a deep breath. "It's a tough call. They're only sixteen, it does feel awfully young for them to go that far. Although, I suppose I can't judge there."

Lawrence said, "Indeed."

"We don't want to encourage them to do more than they would otherwise, but don't want to make them sneak around doing things surreptitiously."

"Precisely," Lawrence agreed. "My plan was to offer to get them separate rooms or a shared one, as they choose. I'll make the same offer to Phineas and Isabella, but I know they'll take the opportunity to share a room."

Jim sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling as he thought. "Go ahead and make the offer. If she chooses not to, I'll cover the cost of the extra room."

* * *

Linda lay next to Lawrence, stewing. "I don't know, dear. The boys are only sixteen. Are you sure about this?"

Lawrence sighed. "Sure? No, not really. But I think it's probably for the best. It's not like we can make Candace and Jeremy sleep in separate rooms, given that they live together now. We agreed when Phineas and Isabella...became intimate...that we'd rather have them doing things somewhere safe like their bedrooms. I don't see letting them share a room on the trip to be too much further than that."

Linda grimaced. "And Jim and Vivian both said it was okay?"

"Jim was a bit more reluctant than Vivian, but yes."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised there. She wasn't even that upset when we found out."

"She did say she'd talked to Isabella about it just the day before."

"It's just...they're so _young_."

"As I recall, love, when you were Phineas's age you were on tour and shared your bed with a different groupie every night."

Linda bristled at him. "Well, that was different. I was Lindana and I wanted to have fun."

"And now Phineas and Isabella just want to have fun. But instead of one-night stands, they've been dating for a year and a half."

"And Ferb and Gretchen?"

"Have been dating for even longer."

Linda rolled over to look at her husband. "I know. I'm just..."

"You're just a mother who's worried about her sons, and whether they're growing up too fast."

* * *

Ferb glared as Phineas ran off to call Isabella. "I'm sure she'll say yes, but let me check!" Phineas shouted over his shoulder.

"And you, Ferb? Why don't you check with Gretchen to see if she'd like to share a room with you?" his father asked. "It could be a two-bed if you'd prefer."

Ferb took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He didn't think she'd want to. He certainly didn't want her to feel pressured into having sex with him. He absolutely didn't want to lose control and force himself on her, like Phineas's first time with Isabella. But his father expected him to ask, so he would.

He nodded to his father and headed to the basement where he could call Gretchen and have a private conversation with her. He shook his head at how his parents were bending over backwards for Phineas and Isabella, even after...what Phineas had done. It had been six months since Ferb had found out, and he still didn't want to be around his brother. Phineas had been confused at how Ferb had shut him out, then hurt, but finally had realized that it was just the new normal. Ferb wasn't sure how Isabella could continue to date Phineas, or how she could even let him touch her.

But that wasn't his problem. His own relationship with Gretchen was strong, even if they hadn't gone as far as Phineas and Isabella had. He was okay with that. Most of the time.

He entered his room and pulled out his phone. Gretchen answered after one ring. "Hey, Ferb. What's up?"

"About the ski trip..." Ferb began.

"Yeah? I'm really looking forward to it. Even if we don't get a lot of privacy."

"About that, actually. My father wants me to ask you if you'd like to share a room."

"With Isabella? I'd assumed I would."

"No, with me."

The other end of the line was filled with a stunned silence.

"Gretchen?" he asked.

"I'm...are you serious?" she stammered excitedly.

"I am. I'm sorry, I should have just said no. I'll go tell them we want separate rooms."

"Wait! Wait, don't do that yet. I need to think about it for a bit. Can I come over, and we'll talk?"

"Of course."

* * *

Gretchen tried to figure out what to say to Ferb as she drove over to his house. She had hoped, when she found out that Phineas and Isabella had become intimate, that she and Ferb could do similarly, but instead Ferb had become afraid of going any further with her at all. She'd tried to talk to him about it, but he was far too concerned about losing control and doing something she didn't want him to do. _Not that there's much I don't want him to do_, she thought.

She pulled up in front of the Flynn-Fletcher house, behind Phineas's car, and climbed out. Phineas had just gotten his license and started fixing up an old beater car; Ferb had just turned 16 and was taking his driving test soon.

She knocked on the door; Phineas opened it and smiled at her, gesturing her in. She smiled back. She wasn't sure quite what had happened between the brothers, but Phineas had never been anything but generous and polite toward her. "Ferb's downstairs," he said.

"Thanks, Phineas," she said, and started down to the basement. She knocked on the door to Ferb's 'lair', as she'd termed it, and he said, "Come in."

He looked up at her and smiled as she came in, standing up to take her in his arms. She kissed him eagerly, then said, "So I've been thinking about the trip," as she pushed back from him.

He let her go and sat on the bed, waiting to hear what she said.

"Would this be just _sleeping_, or would we be...well, sleeping together?" she asked as she sat down in the desk chair, facing him.

"I'd assumed just sleeping. You know I don't want to force..."

"I know," she said. "But you wouldn't have to, and that's the problem. I know you're worried about losing control. But I'll be honest, it doesn't sound all that bad to me..."

"You _want_ me to do what Phineas did to Isabella?" Ferb asked indignantly.

"Yes. I don't want to push you into anything you aren't ready for, though, which really leaves me stuck. If I say I don't want to share a room unless we're sleeping together, then that's pressuring you to do things you don't want to. But if we do share a room just to sleep...I don't know that I can resist the urge to see how far we can go."

"Wait. Go back. You _want_ me to rape you?" Ferb gave her a look that was confused and a bit disgusted.

"Who said anything about rape?" Gretchen asked, puzzled.

"You said you want me to do what Phineas did to Isabella."

"He didn't _rape_ her. Wait, is that why you've been giving him funny looks since they did it?"

"He lost control and they had sex when they had decided not to. That sounds like he forced her to me. That's rape."

"No. _They_ lost control. Both of them. He didn't force anything."

Ferb sat back on the bed, disturbed. "But...are you sure?"

"I wasn't there, I'm just going off what I heard. Isabella doesn't talk about it a lot. She just gets this dreamy smile on her face."

"I..." Ferb's brow furrowed. "One of us is misunderstanding what happened. But I must say, your explanation does match Isabella's reactions more than mine did."

Gretchen nodded. "I think you need to talk to Phineas about this one. But, for now...I think I need to say that we're not at a point where we can share a room right now. Maybe when you're ready to go further than we have."

* * *

Phineas sat in his room, flipping through a book. Isabella had gone home for the night, after a wonderful afternoon and evening together.

_And on the ski trip, we get to spend all night together. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm glad she is, too. Oh, speaking of which..._

He reached over and turned off the cone of silence that kept any noises they made from leaking to the rest of the house. Isabella was very vocal about what she liked. The first time they'd made love on purpose, his mother had come home early and overheard them, which had led to a lot of serious discussions with their parents. To let Isabella enjoy herself while not broadcasting their activities to the rest of the house, he'd built a device that kept noises inside it from propagating out. After finding out they could share a room on the ski trip, he'd started designing a portable one he could bring along to keep the rest of the hotel from hearing her shrieks and moans.

A quiet knock on the door interrupted his train of thought. "It's open," he said, and Ferb pushed the door open wider. "Hey, Ferb, what's up?" Phineas asked. Ferb hadn't gone out of his way to talk to him in months, so Phineas was eager to try to get a conversation going again.

"Can we talk for a few minutes?" Ferb asked, and Phineas nodded in response.

"It's...rather personal," Ferb added.

"That's fine," Phineas said. _As long as you keep talking, I'm good._

"I have been told I had a...misunderstanding, and I wish to make sure I know what actually happened. When you and Isabella...had your first time together...what happened?"

Phineas sat up. "Um. Why do you want to know?"

Ferb's eyes pleaded with Phineas. "I just need to know."

Phineas shrugged. "We were making out. We...lost control. One thing led to another, and we ended up going all the way. It took a couple days to work out what we wanted in our relationship from there."

"How did you lose control?"

Phineas looked at Ferb, puzzled. "Why?"

Ferb looked almost desperate. "I need the details. Please. Trust me?"

Phineas flipped on the switch for the cone of silence. _No need to let the rest of the house hear this._ "We were over at her house. In her room. Kissing...okay, more than kissing. We were both topless. She was wearing that little blue skirt, you've seen it? So my hand had gone under it and was rubbing her ass through her panties. Nothing unusual for us at that point."

Ferb's eyes went wide, and he nodded at Phineas to continue.

"So her leg hooked over mine, and my hand...slipped, I guess. It went a bit farther than I expected, and my middle finger brushed down along her crotch."

Ferb's eyes narrowed.

Phineas said, "So she gasped, and I pulled back and apologized. And she looked up at me and whispered, 'More.'"

"More apology?" Ferb asked.

"More rubbing. I ran my fingers back along there, tentatively, to confirm it was what she wanted, and she moaned and pulled me closer and told me to keep going. So I did, until she pushed me back."

Ferb nodded, steely-eyed.

"She pulled off her skirt and her panties, and asked me to rub some more. And...I probably should have stopped there, but she wasn't the only one feeling really horny by then. So I rubbed her as she got closer and closer to coming."

Ferb's expression looked less comfortable now. "Is that enough, or do you need more?" Phineas asked.

Ferb gestured him to continue. _You asked for it, you got it. Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, Ferb_, Phineas thought.

"So I leaned over, and my hard-on bumped into her leg through my shorts, and she suddenly stopped me and said, 'I'm not being fair to you, am I?' I said we were fine, and she said that we had to do something about me as well. She unsnapped my shorts and pulled them and my underwear down. And she looked at me, and said, 'I need you, Phineas.'"

Ferb sighed, and looked embarrassed.

"I said I didn't have any condoms," Phineas continued, "but she said she was on the pill, and she wanted me to make love to her right then and there. And...I wasn't exactly in a frame of mind to exercise a lot of self-control by that point, so I did. There. Does that tell you what you needed to know? Or do I need to go into more detail from here?"

Ferb waved a hand. "No, that's fine. I apologize. I misunderstood what had happened there. I'm not sure if I misheard or misinterpreted it, but my understanding was that you - just you - had lost control."

"Oh, no, it was very much both of us. Takes two to tango, Ferb."

"That was it. I thought it was just you, and that you had forced her. I'm sorry."

Phineas sat up, shocked. "What? Ferb! How...it's _me_. How could you think I'd do that to _anyone_, much less Isabella? How could you think she'd let me live if I had? Is that why you've been treating me like crap for the past few months?"

"Yes. You see my problem. To be told that..."

"You should have talked to me about it. I thought you trusted me more than that. You ask me to trust you, and you can't even trust me not to rape my own _girlfriend_?"

"I...should have trusted you. I'm sorry."

"Seriously, Ferb, it's Candace's job to overreact that badly in our family, not yours."

Ferb snorted. "That it is. Thank you for trusting me more than I deserved. I am truly sorry about this, and hope you can find some way to forgive me."

Phineas glared at him for a moment, then nodded. "I hope so too."

* * *

Ferb lay on his bed, his thoughts a blur.

_If Gretchen wants to lose control with me..._

_If Phineas and Isabella's first time was really consensual..._

_If I don't need to worry about forcing Gretchen into something she doesn't want..._

He'd been fighting temptation for over six months now, desperately wanting to go further with Gretchen but terrified that he'd force her the way Phineas had forced Isabella. Finding out that Gretchen was quite willing, and that Isabella had been equally willing, was wreaking havoc on his self-control.

_I want Gretchen. I want to make up for lost months. I want..._

He was interrupted by a knock on his bedroom door. His father asked, "Ferb? I saw Gretchen was over. Did you two come to a decision on sleeping arrangements? I need to make the reservation."

Ferb thought for a second. _In for a penny, in for a pound._ "We'll share a room," he called through the door.

* * *

Jim hung up the phone and looked over at his daughter, curled up on the couch watching TV. "So, sharing a room with Ferb after all?" he asked with a grin.

She got a puzzled look on her face. "Huh?"

"That was Lawrence. He said Ferb said to book one room for the two of you. You _are_ taking precautions, right?"

"Yes, of course. I...I need to talk to Ferb. Just a sec." She hurried out of the room, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

* * *

Ferb's phone rang, distracting him from pleasant imaginations of what spending the night with Gretchen would be like. "Hi, love," he answered it.

"Ferb? I thought we'd agreed we weren't sharing a room," she said, agitated.

"We'd agreed we weren't until we were ready to go further. You said you were. And I talked to Phineas and realized I'd been a git."

"You said you didn't want to lose control."

"I've been overreacting to something that didn't happen. And not paying attention to what you were telling me. If you don't want to do more than just sleep, that's okay with me. And..."

"That's not the problem," she interrupted.

"I know. And if you _do_ want to do more than just sleep, _that's okay with me too_. I want to spend the night with you, Gretchen. I love you. And I want to enjoy our first night together, in a nice hotel bed, cozy and warm, nothing separating us..."

Gretchen's breath caught, and Ferb heard a whispered, "Oh," over the phone.

"Still upset?" Ferb asked with a grin.

"Only that we have to wait a couple weeks until the trip."

"Do you want to try something before then?"

She hummed a sound of satisfaction, then said, "No, it gives me something to look forward to. Maybe Isabella and I can go lingerie shopping."

Ferb's erection twitched as an image of Gretchen in something lacy and translucent came to his mind, and he sighed happily.

"Sounds like somebody's excited at the thought," she said.

"Probably not just me," he answered.

"Oh, absolutely not. I'm going to have to go jill off after I get off the phone with you."

"Jill off?" Ferb asked, confused.

"Like jacking off, but for girls."

"Oh! Girls do that? I suppose you must."

"Girls do that. I need to do it after just about every one of our dates."

"Perhaps I can offer you another outlet for your sexual frustrations," Ferb said.

* * *

"You okay?" Jim asked as Gretchen came back into the room. Her face was flushed, as if she were embarrassed. "You dashed out of here...what happened?"

"Bit of a miscommunication between Ferb and me. All straightened out now." She chuckled. "_All_ straightened out."

"Did you not want to share a room with him?" Jim asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I did. I wasn't sure he did. But that's all sorted out now."

Jim nodded. "Okay. Everything's good?"

"Everything's excellent," Gretchen said with a smile.

* * *

Phineas came into the hotel room from the bathroom. Isabella was lying on the bed, a pink silk gown covering her from the tops of her breasts down to the middle of her thighs. She ran her hand along her side, asking, "You like what you see?"

"Yes, yes I do," Phineas said with a grin as he lay beside her. He leaned over and gave her a tender kiss, then lay back and pulled her in to his side. They lay together for a moment, his fingers running through her hair.

"What do you think Ferb and Gretchen are up to?" he asked quietly.

"If you turn on that cone of silence machine, I'll demonstrate," she said.

* * *

Ferb lay back in the bed, Gretchen curled next to his side. Their first time together had gone better than he'd even hoped, at least from his perspective. Gretchen had seemed to enjoy it as well, if her reactions were any indication. She wasn't as loud about things as Isabella, but her quiet whimpers and whispers had been more than enough.

Gretchen ran her foot up the inside of his leg, and he stroked his hand across her bare back. Their nightclothes were...somewhere on the floor, along with their underwear.

"That...was spectacular," Gretchen said softly.

Ferb hummed agreement, pulling her closer and resting his hand on the small of her back. She sighed in contentment.

"Worth the wait?" he asked.

She nodded her head against his shoulder.

From the room next door, they heard a quiet moaning, muffled by the walls. Ferb sighed deeply. He wanted to know about Candace and Jeremy's sex life even less than he wanted to know about Phineas and Isabella's.

Gretchen laughed. "Well, at least Candace and Jeremy are having a good time."

Ferb rolled his eyes. Candace's voice was getting clearer as he focused on it, and in the quiet of the room, he couldn't help but focus on it. "More than I needed to know. But now I can't _not_ hear it."

Gretchen's hand roamed across his chest, and then downward. "Maybe I can find some way to distract you."

Ferb's eyes got wide, and then closed as her hand reached its destination.

* * *

Phineas woke to a wash of moonlight filling the room. He was in a hotel room. He was naked. He had a hard-on. He had to pee. And there was a warm, soft, equally naked young woman sleeping next to him.

He sat up slowly, trying not to wake her. In the dim light he could see Isabella's black hair spread out on the pillow. Up above her head, her nightgown was draped over the headboard. He shook his head at the memory before standing up and walking to the bathroom. Taking care of business with an erection was tricky, but he leaned over the toilet and managed to deal with it. After he washed his hands, he walked back into the bedroom and paused, letting his eyes adjust again.

Isabella was asleep, looking peaceful and serene. The covers had slipped down, showing her bare shoulder, and one leg had slipped out from under the sheets. He shook his head in wonder at how much he loved her. He'd thought that he would never find another girlfriend after Adyson had broken up with him. The idea that it would be Adyson's arch-rival was just ludicrous. But a year of friendship, and a year and a half of dating, and he knew that he needed Isabella - not just physically, as enjoyable as that was, but emotionally, to be his partner, to inspire him and support him.

He slipped back into bed, pulling the covers up over himself. Isabella mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over onto her side, facing away from him.

He spooned behind her, kissing her bare shoulder as his hand slid down, along her bare hip, and then up and across her stomach. He was hard again, so he rotated a bit to angle his erection down toward the bed instead of into her back. He suppressed the urge to slide his hand up to her breast; tempting as the idea was, that was something that should wait until she was awake.

She hummed in the back of her throat, pressing herself back into him. "That's a nice way to wake up," she whispered.

He kissed the back of her neck, exposed as her hair spread out on the pillow. "It is, isn't it? I could get used to waking up with you."

She laughed, and said, "Hold that thought. I need to go to the bathroom, then we can continue this conversation." He let go of her, and she stood up and stretched. Phineas admired her naked body as she did so. She was built lean, with smallish breasts topped with chocolate-brown nipples and a delicious bit of curve in her hips. Shaking her head at him, she walked into the bathroom as Phineas lay back in anticipation.

After a moment, he heard a flush and the sound of water running, then Isabella trotted back in. "Sorry, cold in there. Warm me up?" she asked as she dove under the covers.

Her skin was slightly chilly, so he pressed himself up against her and ran his hands over her to warm her back. Somehow, his hands ended up mostly working on making sure her ass was warm. He kissed her gently, and she responded strongly, like she needed to devour him.

"Love you," he breathed between kisses.

"Love you too," she murmured as she dropped kisses along his jawline. "How long until we need to meet people for breakfast?"

He glanced over at the clock on the nightstand and said, "About an hour."

She pushed him gently, and he rolled over onto his back. She straddled him, his erection standing up stiffly just in front of her. "Well, then, I know what I want to do this morning," she said.

* * *

Gretchen's face felt like it was on fire as they entered the hotel buffet, about fifteen minutes late. Candace waved to them, beckoning them to the table the family had staked out. Jeremy and Phineas were busily talking to each other, but Isabella was giving her a conspiratorial grin. Linda and Lawrence had places but their chairs were empty.

As Gretchen and Ferb moved toward the remaining chairs at the table, Candace swallowed and said, "Mom and Dad are off getting more food. Go, get some grub, we'll wait."

"Actually, I'm still a bit hungry myself, so I'll come with you," Isabella said, standing up and following them over to the food. Ferb walked to the waffle maker, while Isabella and Gretchen grabbed plates and found the eggs.

"So, how'd it go?" Isabella asked in a low voice.

Gretchen blushed and stared at the eggs, unable to look at Isabella. "Really well. _Really_ well."

"I guessed as much when you were late to breakfast. Ferb is _never_ late."

"We spent a bit longer in the shower than we'd planned," Gretchen murmured.

Isabella laughed, grabbed some eggs, and walked back to the table, shaking her head.

* * *

They'd spent all day skiing, and now Phineas was relaxing in the hotel hot tub with Isabella after dinner. They had it to themselves for the moment, so she was sitting in his lap, kissing him earnestly. He was trying to resist the urge to carry her up to their room, but having his bikini-clad girlfriend sitting in his lap was wearing down his resistance quickly.

The gate to the hot tub area swung open, and they looked up guiltily to see Gretchen leading Ferb in. "Oh! I'm sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you..." Gretchen began.

"It's okay," Isabella said. "Come on in, the water's fantastic. We'll share."

Ferb seemed to be tugging her hand away from the hot tub, but Gretchen pulled him forward toward it. "Thanks!" she said, leading Ferb into the hot water. She sat down on the seat, pulling Ferb down next to herself, as Isabella shifted off of Phineas to sit between him and Gretchen.

The girls talked about the day as the boys eyed each other warily. After a few minutes, Isabella said, "I'm going to go get something to drink. You want anything?" she asked Phineas. He shook his head as she stood up and wrapped a towel around herself.

"Mind if I come along?" Gretchen asked.

"Not at all," Isabella said with a broad smile.

Gretchen stood and grabbed a towel, following Isabella over toward the poolside bar near the main pool. As the gate clanged shut, Phineas looked at Ferb awkwardly. Ferb looked like he was about ready to crawl into a hole and pull it in after himself.

"You doing okay?" Phineas asked quietly.

Ferb nodded. "I am truly sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I should have at least tried to find out what actually happened before I went off on you."

Phineas rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. I'm sorry too. I should have tried to find out what happened more. I missed you." He paused, and asked, "Ferb...why did you ask for the details of what happened?"

"Because you're horrible at lying," Ferb said quietly. "If you weren't telling the truth, it would be obvious."

They sat silently for a few minutes. "Getting enough sleep?" Phineas asked with a wry smile.

Ferb laughed and shook his head. "I'd do better if Candace had one of your silence boxes."

The gate swung open again, and Isabella came back holding a pink slushy drink. Gretchen followed with something orange.

"What've you got there, Isabella?" Phineas asked as she dropped her towel and rejoined him in the hot tub, reclaiming her spot on his lap.

"It's a strawberry daiquiri, but without the alcohol," she said, offering it to him. "Want a taste?"

"Sure," he said, taking a sip of the strawberry concoction.

Gretchen, meanwhile, had taken a seat on Ferb's lap. He raised an eyebrow at the cup in her hand.

"Virgin sunrise," she said.

"Well, at least _something_ in the tub is," Ferb said in a voice low enough that Phineas barely caught it. Gretchen giggled, Phineas choked on a laugh, and Isabella gave Phineas an odd look. He shook his head to indicate it wasn't important.

* * *

As they reached their rooms, Ferb pulled his key card out of his shorts, dried it off on the towel wrapped around Gretchen, and slid it into the slot in the door. With a *click* and a green light flashing, the door unlocked.

"Hey, Ferb," Phineas said from the just-opened door across the hall. "Come here for a minute, I've got something for you."

Ferb gestured Gretchen into their room, then walked across the hall to see what Phineas wanted. Phineas opened a drawer in a nightstand and removed a small box the size of a videocassette.

"Here you go. I brought a spare silence cone in case one broke, but...I figure at this point, if one breaks, the two of us can fix it if we work together." Phineas smiled at Ferb hesitantly as he held out the box.

"Thank you," Ferb said. "I think you're right."


End file.
